Silence Fell When the Question was Asked
by Gwidlet
Summary: The Doctor had a daughter, and she had always believed in him - believed that he couldn't let Gallifrey burn, and that he'd come back and save her from the ruins. This is a recap of her final moments, of the moments when she realised that her Daddy wasn't coming, and her Doctor wasn't healing. Her last words asked that one question, asked who had left her to die. And it broke him.


She curled up around her smallest teddy, turning her back on the flames that burned so passionately she felt sure they would never stop. The teddy was tiny and blue, only the size of her fist, but she loved it more than anything else on the planet - well, except one thing. Her Daddy had given her the bear just before he went off to fight, and she had held onto it ever since; and now she encompassed it with her body, shielding it, because really nothing was more important than keeping her Daddy's teddy safe. The little girl's eyes were closed tight, and although she tried to cry the tears were torn from her cheeks by the blaze. The fire licked her body, and she felt every fiber of her being ignite with it. Her hearts beat wildly in her chest and she opened her mouth to scream, but her lungs were already emptied of any usable breath.

"Daddy... Daddy, come home." She tightened her grip around the little blue bear, her tiny fingers grasping onto the only thing left that hadn't been charred by the flames. Her mummy had already left, and told her to stay just there; so that is what the little girl did, but she knew that Mummy had left far too long ago to ever be coming back. She was too scared to move from her room and each word she struggled to get out, fighting the urge to choke on her tears and just sob. She was Daddy's Little Girl; she was precious, Daddy had always said so. So where was he? She knew he was going to come back for her, she just knew it. The fire was creeping closer to her skin; she felt so tired, and it was so hard to regenerate. The teddy bear she'd been clinging on to smelt of smoke and burning skin. The little girl licked her chapped lips, but they remained parched.

"Daddy... Daddy you promised. You said you'd be my Doctor, you said you'd make me better. Daddy please, I want to go with you, I want to come home." She was in tears, and this time they trickled freely and easily down her cheeks. The fire was too close now, and she only just had time to process this thought before her skin began to burn. She tried to regenerate; she screwed up her face and tried to forget the tears and the room and the teddy and everything, but nothing happened. She still burned, and every piece of muscle in her body crackled with pain. The smoke was thicker than she'd ever imagined it could be and she arched her back, perhaps in pain or perhaps to search for clearer air. The tiny girl opened her even smaller mouth and she screamed. She screamed for her mummy and her daddy and she clung to her little teddy. She hadn't been a bad girl, had she? Daddy had promised to get her. The flames engulfed her, burning her hair and stripping her muscles away from her bones; every piece of her body screamed in pain and she screamed just as loudly.

"DADDY, YOU PROMISED," she tried to say, but it came out as a half-scream and half-cough. She was desperate and miserable, tears trickling down and being swept away just as quickly by the ever-burning flames. The little girl was feeling tired, but she kept screaming. Her vocal cords cracked and rustled with each attempt.

"YOU SAID YOU'D BE MY DOCTOR. YOU PROMISED, DADDY - DADDY PLEASE I DON'T WANT TO, I DON'T WANT TO DIE." She wrapped her fingers around her teddy again, but now it was stained black with the ashes that burned and fell like snow around her tiny body. She could smell blood, sizzling and burning away, and she hated it. She screamed.

"Please... please. Take me with you, take me anywhere, just don't leave me.." Her body started shaking, trembling with each tear that fell. She didn't want to die, she had so much to do. She had to give her Daddy back the teddy, she had to see her Mummy was alright, she had to play once more on that playground and sleep once more in her bed. She had to hug Daddy, even just one more time. And she had to live, because she hadn't even lived a tenth of the time she was supposed to. She arched what remained of her body around the teddy, pressing her weight against it in an attempt to preserve it.

"You were my Doctor... You said you were." She bit her tongue, trying to keep from sobbing and wretching and pleading. Her hearts beat fast, too fast, and then one of them just stopped altogether, and she writhed in pain. She tossed onto her side and screamed, and her screams reached the man that stood on the very edge of the planet; the man who was watching his own world burn. And they broke him.

"You were my Doctor, my Daddy... Daddy who? Father who?" Each word was accompanied by a shock of pain and a tiny whimper of pain, and the Doctor took comfort in those; she was still alive. His little girl was fighting, and although he knew it was inevitable, he just wanted her to cling on. Just to wait for him, even though he would never be able to come.

The little girl's fingers slackened on the teddy bear.  
"Doc... Doctor... wh- who?"

The whimpers stopped. The silence, the Doctor thought, was even more deafening than his little girl's screams.


End file.
